How close was Mauricio Pochettino to working with Lionel Messi? A centimetre, apparently

Lionel Messi? Pfft. He's just a poor man's Dele Alli.

We joke, of course, but apparently Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino came within a whisker of working with the newly crowned Ballon d'Or winner back in 2004. Pochettino claims that, when playing for Espanyol, the club had the opportunity to sign Messi and revealed how very close the deal came to being done. "Do you know how many players in football are close to signing for many clubs?" Pochettino responded when asked how close midfielder Alli came to signing for Liverpool. "Dele Alli, it's impossible to speak about that because maybe different clubs were close to signing Dele Alli. Dele Alli is now here. "We were close at Espanyol to signing Lionel Messi but this was true. A centimetre (away), unbelievable but this was true, maybe Dele wasn't true but this was. "Messi was 17 years old (in the 2004/05 season), playing under-18s and was very close to signing for Espanyol. It was close but it never happened. "In football it's always 'if, if, if' but it's about reality, it's not about maybe what could have happened." Imagine it! Espanyol would probably have won at least five of those league titles if this particular piece of business had come to fruition.